I've noticed that my car makes a poping noise sometimes when I go around corners. The front steering linkage has been replaced with the exception of the tie rods, but I've checked these and they seem fine, ball joints have also been replaced. I've even checked the wheel bearings and they look fine except for the inner bearings I wasn't able to check these. I noticed while checking the bearings that they look like crappy bearings. Instead of having a metal outer shell they have a flimsy plastic piece to hold the rollers in place. I don't know if replacement bearings would come the same or not but these just don't look all that good. How many miles are a set of wheel bearings good for and which ones tend to wear out quicker the inner or the outer? I'm thinking maybe the inners are worn out. When I purchased this car 8 months ago it only had 50,000 miles on it and still had the original tires on it. Now it has 72,000 miles on it, just wondering if it's time to replace them?

Mark

 

they may be plastic, but they take a beating. I have well over a 300 auto-x runs on mine, and a road race, and 65,000 miles. they are worn, but havn't failed yet

When I do my 1LE brakes I will replace them with the metal cage bearings.

 

Yeah there's nothing wrong with the plastic cage, it's not a load-bearing part or anything, and is the same as the ones used in larger cars.

But like everything else, they can wear out. They're cheap, so if you suspect they're bad, just replace them.

 

A popping, cracking-kinda noise while turning? More noticeable while backing up and turning? Look into the upper strut mounts....My SC was doing this so I pulled the old ones off of my Z28 shell and 'tossed them on' (mark the original location, so you can get your alignment back close to spec), and the noise disappeared.

Pete

 

I replaced the strut mounts about 10,000 miles ago with KYB mounts.

 

The plastic cage really doesn't do much besides hold the bearings in place while and before you install them. Bearings will almost always grind and howl when they go bad.